Democrat says Trump’s promise to protect Americans rooted in ‘xenophobia and racism and an anti-immigrant bias’

Rep. Adam Smith is less than a week into his tenure as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, but the new position already has thrust the Bellevue Democrat to the forefront in the clash between his party and President Donald Trump over a wall along the southern border.

With the federal government in the third week of a partial shutdown over the border impasse, Trump is threatening to declare a national emergency to unilaterally divert money from the Defense Department to build the wall.

In an early Monday tweet, Trump cited a weekend TV interview in which Smith conceded the president may have the legal authority to shift those funds.

But Smith, in an interview with The Seattle Times later Monday, slammed Trump’s wall obsession, saying that while the president has broad emergency powers, he shouldn’t use them for what Smith calls a manufactured crisis.

“He wants to scare people about the hordes coming from south of our border. It’s rooted in xenophobia and racism and an anti-immigrant bias — it is not rooted in fact … He is trying to demagogue the immigration issue, and that is why the government is shut down,” he said.

A former state legislator and attorney, Smith was first elected to Congress in 1996 and won re-election in November to a 12th term. Now the longest-serving member of Washington’s U.S. House delegation, his seniority has put him in a committee chair position for the first time.

Smith assumes the Armed Services post at a difficult juncture for the Defense Department. Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned last month, in part over Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria. The resignation sent shock waves through Washington political circles and the Pentagon, which is now led by acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive.

In the interview Monday, Smith vowed to wield the committee’s oversight authority to hold the Trump administration accountable on controversies that include overseas use of military force, deployment of troops to the border and wasteful Pentagon spending.

On wall funding, Smith criticized the White House for a willingness to shut down the government without giving a detailed justification for the spending. He contrasted that with the 1990s government shutdown, when Republicans sought specific budget cuts from the Clinton White House.

“Here, the president just wants us to give him $5.6 billion so he can falsely claim that he’s maintained a campaign promise. That is breathtakingly irresponsible. So no, we’re not going to give him a single penny for a wall that even he can’t explain,” Smith said. “He might as well ask us to ceremonially burn $5.6 billion on the White House lawn as some kind of sacrifice to the gods to allow the government to continue to function fully.”

For his part, Trump, who pledged during the 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall, has stood fast on his funding demands and suggested last week the government shutdown could continue for months or years. The president planned a public address from the White House on Tuesday about what he calls a crisis, and scheduled a visit to the border later this week.

The Trump campaign sent an email to supporters Monday attacking congressional Democrats for “choosing illegal immigrants over hardworking American patriots like YOU. NO MORE!” The email said Democrats “don’t care about your safety, they only care about Presidential Harassment!”

Smith said Congress could compromise on the issue of border security “if the president came to us and said, we think there are these weaknesses in border security and some new technologies out there and said we need something.” But, he added, “I find that hard to believe because we spend between $30 [billion] and $35 billion a year on it.”

If Trump does try to use existing Defense Department money to build the wall, Smith said the action would likely face a court challenge. But he was wary about predicting the outcome of such a move. He noted the Defense Department, on 18 different occasions since September 2001, has diverted funds to new uses under an “emergency construction authority.”

Smith said his first hearing as Armed Services chair will look at military spending, which has received large increases under Trump. He said military spending should be balanced with the federal government’s other responsibilities and that his committee will examine “the right amount of money to spend on the Pentagon,” what national security strategy justifies the spending, and how accountability can be improved.

An investigative story published in November in The Nation magazine alleged that Defense Department leaders have been “cooking the books” for decades and perpetrating “an unconstitutional fraud” in financial reports to Congress.

Smith said he had been digging into the lack of transparency in military spending, and will continue to do so. “We are absolutely going to bird-dog them to get accurate record-keeping, a full audit that tells us where you’re spending your money and why,” Smith said.

He also said he will hold hearings on the decision to send U.S. troops to the Mexican border, a move that Trump critics, including Smith, have attacked as a politicization of the military.

A third priority for hearings will be overseas military operations. Smith said he is looking for a better understanding of what collateral damage has resulted from A third priority for hearings will be overseas military operations. Smith said he is looking for a better understanding of what collateral damage has resulted from actions such as U.S. airstrikes in Somalia.

In U.S. military operations in Syria, Smith said it may make sense to pull ground troops out of Syria, as Trump has said he wants to do. But it appeared that Trump made the decision “by the seat of his pants,” and Smith wants a greater explanation of policy rationale.

Smith also plans to delve into the future of U.S. nuclear weaponry. Though the numbers have declined over the years, Smith thinks the current arsenal — which he estimates at more than 4,000 nuclear weapons — could be reduced further.

“I don’t think we need as many … My argument is simple. I don’t think we need that many to deter our enemies,” Smith said.

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14 Comments

So if Xenophobia is a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries, just what is it called when you have a prejudice and hatred for people of your own country that do not belong to your political party? I would guess that an audit of slush funded military expenses would pale in comparison to the audit of Congressional representatives. So nobody from the Democrat party slush fund to cover illicit Congressional affairs WHILE IN OFFICE goes to jail or gets impeached, according to the Democrats Trump can get impeached for affairs 10 years before getting into office, and our military gets prosecuted? These mindless Democrats proclaim building walls that work is a 5th century solution, but only offer a 4000 B.C. solution of their own,,,,which is NO WALLS. Our now over-run underfunded empty wall border just reflects their over worked under funded empty heads.

If it has been decades then it was under Obama, Bush and Clinton? I guess Smith didn’t seem to think the military under any of these other presidents was a problem. I agree with looking at any government agency and their spending, but isn’t that Smith was supposed to be doing all these years he has been our guiding light?

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ltuser

11:54 pm January 9, 2019 at 11:54 pm

This crisis started way before even clinton, in the 60s and 70s, when we started seeing masses of illegals hitting up our borders. It came to a head in the 80s under Reagan, hence the leftists demented push to get Reagan to agree to an amnesty “now, border security later (WHICH NEVER MATERIALIZED)”..

5000 people attempting to enter the USA en-mass is a FOREIGN INVASION. 5000 people demanding $55,000 each as damages for not being allowed to enter and to go away is extortion.
Each person who uses a coyote to enter the USA is involved in a CONSPIRACY to violate our laws. A felony in each state and federally.
Bottom line these people have proven that each one who attempts to enter the USA are CRIMINALS and involved in invasion of this country.
This gives the President the RIGHT to use military to secure our borders just as military is used in EVERY OTHER NATION for that purpose. Protecting our borders is well within the MANDATE of presidential authority.
Meanwhile twice in my life the Democrats gave amnesty to 100% of illegal aliens. Swearing them in as citizens to ILLEGALLY gain their votes in major elections. Each time the Democrats Promised the PEOPLE of the USA that there would never be another amnesty and that they would CLOSE OUR BORDERS.
ALL Democrats are LIARS and Criminals attempting to abuse this country for votes and power. I have had enough of them. I dont care whether one would argue that the same ones that made the promise are not the ones violating the promise. The promise was made. They never upheld their end. Therefore they are ALL liars and Criminals wanting PERSONAL gain and power over honesty and integrity.

Over 20,000 unaccompanied minors in Dec. alone. That is not a trickle by anyone’s count. I think it is over 65,000 for the year. And that is just children. We need to stop this NOW. Dems don’t want anything to happen to be put in place if it looks like it would work especially if is under a Republican president.

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ltuser

11:56 pm January 9, 2019 at 11:56 pm

And the reason its kids, is because the illegals, KNOW THERE’s enough bleeding heart libtards here, we won’t kick those kids out back home.

Truth is that the Democrats don’t give a rat’s *** about the citizens of this country. They have no problem allowing anyone and everyone to enter this country, even MS-13 and Muslim terrorists. They don’t care when an innocent citizen gets murdered by one of these scum. Their only concern is getting more votes on election day and that is it. So they throw up a smoke screen by labeling President Trump with the xenophobic label or anything else they can think of. The Democrats belong in a fully Communist country because that is really what they are. John Fitzgerald Kennedy would tell the Democrats of today exactly what they are. They are of their father the Devil to quote the most famous historical figure.

“So no, we’re not going to give him a single penny for a wall that even he can’t explain…”
It’s been explained plenty of times, in many different ways and in many languages. It just may be that nothing truthful can be explained to you.

These are racism and xenophobia provided that the following definitions of racism and xenophobia are used:

racism – a theory that explains why Americans don’t mind being looted, defrauded, raped, invaded, and murdered by other Americans but become frantically apprehensive about all these when illegal immigrants are the perpetrators.

xenophobia – any form of resistance to giving America away to the migrating hordes.

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HOW?? If it was illegal, then were all those censuses asked from 1890 to the 1950s all illegally performed???"Comment by ltuser
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